THE BLOG

Who would have thought that the design giant Adobe will create their own Canva? It is easy to see why the simple-to-use and user friendly ebook cover design tool Canva is so successful, and it is actually not that big a surprise that Adobe – usually known for endless options, hidden settings and taking years to master – decided to join the flow introducing Adobe Spark.

Read on to learn how to design a beautiful ebook cover with this easy to use tool on your computer, tablet, or straight from your mobile, and compare Adobe Spark to Canva.

If you are a newbie to cover design, we recommend that you also check out our cover design masterpost to help you avoid common mistakes.

Adobe Spark is a powerful Creative Cloud tool priced from free to £10 a month – it is already obvious from the pricing that this one tool is not aimed at professional designers but students, marketers, bloggers and small businesses (including writers and publishers) for their smaller scale design needs.

The suite contains of Page for web stories, Video for graphic videos and Post for any kind of graphic material you would normally use PhotoShop for.

Going wide or KDP only? Today’s article is covering exclusive distribution definition, examples and arguments for and against it.

Exclusive distribution means that a distributor has unique rights to distribute your book: you can’t sell it anywhere else. Currently KDP Select is the most popular exclusive distributor, as most self-publishing authors already know: for a higher percentage of royalties, authors can enroll in KDP Select for a 90-day period and re-enroll any time. If your book is available through KDP Select, it is available to KU users, Kindle Lending Library borrowers and to everyone using Amazon. As a return for the exclusive rights, Amazon offers a wide range of promotion services, including 5 days when you can sell your book for free.

Going exclusively to Amazon is a great tool that works for many authors. But what about other distributors and markets Amazon doesn’t reach?Continue Reading…

In the third part of the series, we are focusing on disruptors once again: how they change distribution and book production processes.

There is only a certain number of regular readers, and it seems like traditional publishers and self-publishers are fighting againsteach other to see who is able to get the biggest slice of the pie instead of simply focusing on providing better solutions to the readers.

As Richard Nash points out: there are two contrasting tendencies working against each other, both extremely low prices set by Amazon and extremely high prices set by traditional publishers. And this is the point where industry disruptors can come into picture.

Can you enter the price competition without compromising on quality? Will you present yourself as a premium service? Today’s biggest question is how to keep your professional integrity and stay on your feet.

Some of the problems creative industry as a whole is facing concern author payments, licensing and rights. With an amazing amount of ‘free’ content available (speaking of music on Youtube or Spotify, news and other types of journalistic content, books and images), it is hardly traceable how and when the creators will get paid. With an astonishingly long chain between writers and readers, creators and audience, it is only a fraction of the money that gets back to the original creators of the IP. Not to mention that in addition to taking a big slice of the cake, end-distributors use data and advertising revenue generated mainly by content they don’t own – this data and revenue is never redistributed.

On the other hand, licences are difficult to get hold of. If I would like to find a picture for illustration purposes, I can search certain databases for free-to-use images and then hope that the information is correct. While the creative commons standard improved this area a lot, there is still a lot of unauthorized use. (This could be due to mechanisms being mistaken and only partially automatized.)

Unauthorized use can range from posting a cool gif on tumblr without crediting the original creator (as there is literally no way to find it) to obvious theft. It is not only end-user piracy content creators are afraid of, but monetizing stolen IP. There is always the option of better DRM. But does it really solve the problem?

Putting aside the constant scare of whether robots will soon take our jobs – coming even from creatives -, AI is already here and more and more companies are using it. But what does AI stand for and how can writers and publishers utilise artificial intelligence? This article starts with a little history for newcomers, then explores some solutions that are already existent and available for all and poses some questions about the future.

This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair is all about innovation and technology. On this note, let’s explore what AI can do for publishers, and whether there is anything publishers can do for AI.

With the Canadian company Rakuten Kobo finally launching their audiobooks service worldwide, appearing as a long awaited competitor for Amazon’s Audible, audiobooks became a hot topic once again, living their revival. But how do audiobooks work, where to get them from and are they still overly expensive?

Although they have been around for a while now, they only became popular during the last couple of years: with almost everyone in the world having access to some kind of mobile device, listening to podcasts and audiobooks became increasingly popular. What once was thought of as a necessity for people with sight loss became a viable and popular alternative to listening to radio and podcasts. Because yes, audiobooks are not here to take readers away: quite the opposite, they are here to bring reading-like experience into situations where you couldn’t normally read. Like when you are driving. Never read and drive!

Jokes aside, let’s have a look at what are these audiobooks anyway, why are they good and what do the biggest players on the market have to offer.

Are you ready to get published? Great! Why not throw a party? A book launch is not only a great opportunity for you to celebrate this amazing achievement but also an event that can affect your future sales. While you should not forget about the power of building a brand and creating a fanbase (people who love your style and are happy to buy everything you write), the book launch itself is a powerful marketing tool you can only use once and have to make the most of it.

But wait, aren’t all ebook launches boring and obsolete? And how to throw a party if your potential readers live on the other side of the planet? Read on for tips and tricks of an interesting, exciting and successful ebook launch your readers will talk about.